All school shootings over the past years have been horrific. The Newtown, Connecticut, shooting has been the hardest for me to deal with, I suppose, because of the ages of the children. I have a lot of questions; I have precious few answers. I know that God is in control, I know that it was not His will that this tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary happened, but He did allow it. I don’t know why.
There’s a lot being said about gun control. If someone thinks banning guns will stop guns from getting in the hand of the bad guys, they need a reality check. If someone is determined to kill, they will. Would we next outlaw fertilizer (bombs) and box cutters (hijacked airplanes)? If someone is determined to get a gun, they will; just the same as if they want cocaine, meth, or heroin.
We all know we are living in perilous times. We’ve heard it said that we removed God from schools, and now we have these atrocious acts of violence in the classrooms, that until a few years ago were both unheard of and unimaginable. I believe it to be a truth, that once prayer is removed, the hedge of protection that went with it is gone. When I was in elementary school, one of the things we did every morning was say the Pledge of Allegiance, and in second grade, I remember we learned, and recited every day, Psalm 100. I can recite it to this day. We always said the blessing before lunch...unheard of in today’s public schools…much to the detriment of this country, and especially our children.
We have a nation of people who happily (and blindly) elect Godless leaders, and sadly, Christians are part of those blind voters. We have placed the Bible in a position of being an archaic piece of fiction that is no longer valid, and according to our president, obscure. We have embraced institutions the Bible calls abominations. We offer our children “entertainment” in the form of violent video games which we allow them to play unlimitedly, while parents spend endless hours online or in front of a television, on cell phones, and playing our own video games. We have embraced vampires and wizards in the names of Twilight and Harry Potter, and call them innocent entertainment, forgetting that the Bible clearly states that witchcraft and divination is evil.
America has denied the very existence of God…not always in words, often in deed. Christians have played a big part in our demise by keeping our mouths shut and bowing to the pressures of evil instead of standing strong for what’s right, in faith and belief, and in the fear of God. Oh yes, we’ve lost the fear of God!
There’s change on the horizon. It’s not a change that any of us will want to embrace, and I believe it is at that time, finally, and if the Lord tarries, America will fall on her knees because, frankly, she’ll have no place left to go. My friends, indeed, Jesus is coming soon.
I disagree with you. God did not allow this to happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is God who is needed in this situation.
As you watch the news. The parents of the loss of children and the six adults their families confess God very open.Itis their strength. I have not heard anyone blame God. God is a God of love. Not Evil. The first young dad who spoke even forgave the killer and prayed for the killers family that remains alive.
God is not a God of causing things.
Evil in man causes it.
People have choices to have God as their Savior. The young Father said that clearly in
his interview to the world.
I loss memembers in my family not this way but it still was hard the situation to lose siblings young but not once did I blame the Lord. I went to the Lord for strength.
My Lord helped me get over my grief. He made me strong . I will never forget my loss but because of the Lord it made me realize. God does not cause things. If the school prayer was taken away it was mens ways. Then it is mens ways to keep praying in the homes as Christians. You learn to bring up your children in the homes first. Show them the right way to go. As parents we teach them the love of Christ in the homes. That is why the children were given to us. They are a gift from God. The protection of God starts in your homes.
I don't blame God. I blame the absence of God. He is either in control, or He is not, and since I know full well that He is, indeed, in control (read Job), I recognize that for His own reasons, He did allow this. I don't believe, as I stated, that it was His will that this should happen.
DeleteI agree with much of what you have said. Thank you for you comment.
I'm sorry for your loss, I truly am.
I agree with you Meg that God allowed this to happen. He is in total control and for whatever reason he allowed it. You are absolutely right in what you said that by removing God from the classroom, we have removed that protection. He will not go where he is not wanted; he is a gentleman like that. I do believe he will make beauty out of the ashes of this tragedy and every other tragedy that has happened. We may not see the beauty in our lifetimes, but I do believe it will be there. It is a wake up call for us who are believers to keep getting the message out about Jesus because without him our world has no hope; we have no hope.
ReplyDeletebetty
He was tested Job but God did not allow death my dear to Job.
ReplyDeleteThe book of Job deals with this issue. God had allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him.
ReplyDeleteBut God did allow satan to kill Job's 10 children.
DeleteGod allowing it to happen is not God willing it to happen.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a wiser way to phrase it, which would cause less pain to those already hurting, could be something like: God allows free will, and human beings sometimes make evil choices.
ReplyDeleteThe day of the tragedy, my "daily verse" that comes up automatically said this: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." I Peter 3:15 NIV
I agree with the content of what you've written. I just think that in this time right now when people are so recently brokenhearted, we need to be extra tender with them, and minister that truth with much compassion. Not saying you didn't mean to do that. It's just that I understand Sparke100's reaction, because that was the one phrase that bothers me, too: "but God allowed it." That can come off wrong, giving the wrong impression. I think I know how you meant it... but still prefer to say God allows free will, and WE make the evil choices in this fallen world.
There are no easy answers... I'm like you: "I have a lot of questions; I have precious few answers."
Thanks, Loretta. Maybe I shouldn't have written the post at all, considering I got a little irritated over the fact that on the very day it happened, (when I couldn't read the stories without being sick or teary), people were already making something political of the tragedy...and then here I go. Perhaps I'm a little hypocritical.
DeleteI do like how you say, "God allows free will, and we make the choices..." I guess that really does sum it up, doesn't it?
Hey, Margaret. A brave post. I agree with everything you wrote--even that which is hard to accept.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the easy part. Gun control. You're right, of course. It is ironic that Connecticut has one of the most stringent gun codes in the country. Very difficult to legally buy guns there. The thing is--it is NOT a problem of gun control laws-->it is a problem with MENTAL HEALTH laws. The mentally ill are not--I repeat NOT--properly treated or monitored. It is almost impossible for family to get their mentally ill relatives hospitalized. the definitions of being a "danger to one's self or someone else" is very defined so narrowly as to be useless as far as getting involuntary care goes. I now from whence I spea, both professionally and personally.
As far as the rest. God is bigger than anyone and anything--even satan and evil. He could have sent an army of angels t that school and protected those children. The shooter could have been struc blind as he approached the school. He could have gotten into an accident an accident on the way to the school and never arrived. God chose not to use miraculous means to stop what this young man chose to do. Since God did not stop it from happening, he allowed it. A difficult truth, but remember--for God to have stopped this shooting, a miracle would have been required for the will of the shooter was set.
God has a plan for evil. Sometimes he performs miraculous intervention, but often he does not. It's not the parents' fault. It's not he children's fault. It's not the school teachers and staff's fault. It is the fault of evil.
If you recall, when Jesus was born,God told Joseph to go to Egypt because Herod was about to murder all boys two years old and under. rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted, because they were not. The slaughter of the innocents happened then, too. Evil moved then as it does now.
That is why Jesus was born. That is why He came--to destroy evil. that is the plan, but it is not yet fully done.
For me (And Margaret, this shooting hit me hard, too. today was the first day I did not cry over it., this action spoe loud and clear exactly what ind of a world we are living in and why Jesus came to save us. Just as you post listed, we have made evil seem fun. Well, evil happened at Newtown. Only satan thought it was fun.
Hugs.
Deb
P.S. My eyboard is acting up. My capital r and the letter between j & l are't striing. Sorry.
Thanks, Deb.
DeleteMy mom mentioned Rachel to me, when I was trying to make sense of it all (of course, you can't make sense of something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary). She reminded me of Hope...after the verse in Jeremiah were he was prophesying Rachel weeping and refusing to be comforted, (vs 15) comes this:
Jeremiah 31
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Refrain your voice from weeping,
And your eyes from tears;
For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope in your future, says the Lord,
That your children shall come back to their own border.
I'm very thankful this world is not my home, and that beyond the pain in this life, there is Heaven, and those children are already there.